The Trust Issue

Since Bush is claiming he got bad intelligience on Iraq, this probably lets Kerry and other Democrats off the hook of having voted for the war. If Bush was duped, they can imply they were too without looking bad.

I do think the trust issue will become a part of the Presidential campaign. The Democrats can keep implying that Bush exaggerated the facts, or deceived Americans before the war without calling him an outright liar.

The question then becomes, "do you want a President for the next four years you cannot trust to tell you the truth?" Not only is it a good campaign tactic, but it is a legitimate question. There is no doubt that Bush did exaggerate the threat.

It would be a winner for the Democrats because even people who are glad Saddam is gone may reason that Bush has served his purpose and they may not trust him on what he plans to do next.

Cotton Bowl, I really believe the catalyst for going into Iraq was not the supposed faulty intelligence, but solely Dick Cheney.
That's not an excuse for Bush, if anything it says he's not a strong leader.
Cheney wanted to go into Iraq more than Bush in my opinion.
I know Bush wanted to avenge his Daddy's issues with Saddam and Iraq.
But Cheney was the ringleader on this in my opinion.
Now as far as voting for a President who one can trust to tell the truth?
I think voter turnout is low enough as it is, if you force that particular issue it will shrink to basically nothing.
I think this election is going to turn on 2, maybe 3 issues.
The three big ones will be whether we get Osama and when, the siutation in Iraq in terms of casualties and how many troops are in Iraq come this fall and gay marriages, which is the biggest social issue in this country since slavery.

Originally posted by CottonBowl'66 Since Bush is claiming he got bad intelligience on Iraq, this probably lets Kerry and other Democrats off the hook of having voted for the war. If Bush was duped, they can imply they were too without looking bad.

I do think the trust issue will become a part of the Presidential campaign. The Democrats can keep implying that Bush exaggerated the facts, or deceived Americans before the war without calling him an outright liar.

The question then becomes, "do you want a President for the next four years you cannot trust to tell you the truth?" Not only is it a good campaign tactic, but it is a legitimate question. There is no doubt that Bush did exaggerate the threat.

It would be a winner for the Democrats because even people who are glad Saddam is gone may reason that Bush has served his purpose and they may not trust him on what he plans to do next.

If this really is in the post tomorrow it should be an interesting read.

Top Clinton administration officials wanted to end the Kosovo war abruptly in the summer of 1999 -- at almost any cost -- because Al Gore's presidential campaign was about to kick off, former NATO commander Gen. Wesley Clark says in his official papers, the WASHINGTON POST is set to report in Saturday editions, according to newsroom sources...

'There were those in the White House who said, 'Hey, look, you gotta finish the bombing before the Fourth of July weekend. That's the start of the next presidential campaign season, so stop it. It doesn't matter what you do, just turn it off. You don't have to win this thing, let it lie...'